Day 6: Mission Accomplished

Well, amazingly we've made it to Carlisle, our last real destination. And on schedule! Believe me, no one is more surprised than me!

But, the original idea was to see if we could actually make Scotland. So all that is left is to pop over the border and we've done it. Nearest place is Gretna, not Gretna Green but the outlet village almost directly on the river border.

It's wet, the bus we get is the slow one which tours the estates of Longton

It eventually gets there, we get the next bus back. It's too wet to walk down to the "Scotland" border sign so we content ourselves with a snap in the outlet village as proof. That's the cover photo.

Now comes the tricky bit, our bus passes don't work in Scotland, so can I negotiate with the driver to pay the minimal fare to the first stop in England and then get another, free, ticket into Carlisle? Not necessary, somehow Gretna outlet village is still within the English concessionary fare scheme. To get the punters there I suppose, but we'll settle for a free ride back.

Just 25 miles round trip, even taking the scenic route

Scotland: be there, done that, got the bus tickets.